Jon Gruden and the Raiders fly to Los Angeles for a date with the Rams on Saturday. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

AP Photo

Warren led the NFL in rushing yards during the preseason. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

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Los Angeles Rams linebacker Bryce Hager, left, breaks up a pass intended for Oakland Raiders tight end Marcus Baugh during the first half in an NFL preseason football game Saturday, Aug. 18, 2018, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Kelvin Kuo)

Malcolm Brown #34 of the Los Angeles Rams eludes Rashaan Melvin #22 of the Oakland Raiders during the first half of a preseason game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Aug. 18, 2018 in Los Angeles, California.

Jon Gruden made some big decisions on Saturday. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

Carr threw more than twice as many picks in 2017 as in 2016. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group

Warren led the league in rushing yards during the preseason. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

Oakland Raiders' Bruce Irvin (51) looks up at the crowd before his teams preseason NFL game versus the Detroit Lions at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 10, 2018. (Randy Vazquez/ Bay Area News Group)

Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden and quarterback Derek Carr (4) look over the play sheet on the sidelines in the second quarter of their preseason NFL game against the Detroit Lions at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 10, 2018. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

Oakland Raiders quarterback EJ Manuel (3), left, stiff arms Detroit Lions' Freddie Bishop (49), right, in the fourth quarter of their preseason NFL game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 10, 2018. The Raiders would win the game 16-10 over the Lions. (Randy Vazquez/ Bay Area News Group)

Oakland Raiders' Jalen Richard (30) breaks away from Detroit Lions' Rolan Milligan (41) in the second quarter of their preseason NFL game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 10, 2018. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group

Oakland Raiders' Karl Joseph (42) celebrates after sacking Detroit Lions quarterback Matt Cassel (8) in the second quarter of their preseason NFL game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 10, 2018. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

Oakland Raiders' Marshawn Lynch (24) looks up at the stands in the first quarter of their preseason NFL game versus the Detroit Lions at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 10, 2018. (Randy Vazquez/ Bay Area News Group)

Oakland Raiders' Paul Butler (84) catches pass against Detroit Lions' Rolan Milligan (41) for a first down in the second quarter of their preseason NFL game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 10, 2018. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr (4) drops back to pass in the first quarter of their preseason NFL game against the Detroit Lions at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Aug. 10, 2018. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

Oakland Raiders' Marshawn Lynch (24) runs for touchdown against the Detroit Lions in the first quarter of their preseason NFL game at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif. on Friday, Aug. 10, 2018. The play would be called back for a holding penalty. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

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ALAMEDA — After nearly a month of training camp in Napa and two preseason games, the Raiders returned to their team facility in Alameda for practice on Monday. But despite plenty of practices and eight quarters of what I’ll generously call “football”, we still have little to no idea of what to expect from these 2018 Oakland Raiders.

Yes, there have been some hints — it’s clear that new/old coach Jon Gruden is going to employ a zone blocking scheme in the run game and we have a decent idea of what new defensive coordinator Paul Guenther will call for pass coverage — but more so than perhaps any other team in the NFL right now, these Raiders are an enigma.

So while there are two preseason games remaining — starting with Friday’s exhibition “showdown” with the Packers at the Coliseum — the likelihood is that the Raiders coach is going to continue to play his cards several layers underneath his vest until the regular-season opener on Sept. 10.

“If I told you what didn’t go… they might have all of our secrets,” Raiders quarterback Derek Carr said Monday, two days after the Raiders’ aggressively uninformative and unentertaining second preseason game Saturday. “We did not throw a lot out there. I think we’ll just continue to do that… until the regular season hits, when the wins and losses and those things are on coach’s record. I think that’s when it’ll change.”

Raiders owner Mark Davis hired Gruden and paid him a reported $100 million for many reasons — not the least of which was the coach’s engaging personality. Gruden might like to label himself a “football guy” through and through, but there’s always a bit of showman to him — that’s what made him so great on television.

Gruden has kept players off the field and his playbook basic so far in practices and preseason games. He’s keeping us guessing as to what his new offense — theoretically devised over the last decade — is, likely building to a grand reveal on Monday Night Football.

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One last gift for his friends at ESPN? Perhaps.

But right now, the ambiguity surrounding this Raiders team is creating a football Rorschach Test — come on down and project your baseless expectations onto the Silver and Black!

(Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group) Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group

I can tell you what I’ve seen so far this preseason, for whatever it’s worth:

I’ve seen a team that looks significantly more professional than last year’s outfit. I’ve seen an offense that has playmakers, a ton of crossing routes, an offensive line that can manhandle the opposition but is instead cut blocking. I’ve seen an uber-talented starting quarterback who has a newfound fire to him — an MVP candidate who is being intellectually challenged for the first time in a while. I see a defense that might not be elite but is going to be well-coached and likely sound, even without Khalil Mack.

I’m seeing baseline competence, an AFC West that’s wholly availbile for the taking, and a team that could win nine, ten, or eleven games.

Not bad, right?

But again, that’s just from practice observations — the positives are there, but success doesn’t mean much when it’s coming in an intrasquad setting.

At the same time, Gruden hasn’t put much (if anything) on tape for the rest of the league when he has to play another team. Carr has taken six preseason snaps through two games. Jordy Nelson has five snaps to his name this preseason. Marshawn Lynch has taken a grand total of two snaps and his backup — Doug Martin — has taken four.

Gruden seems to revel in the notion that he’s keeping the entire league guessing.

“I think if you would have told me that Chris Warren would be my leading rusher and Paul Butler would be our leading receiver at this time, I would say, ‘That’s crazy. That’s unbelievable,’” Gruden said Monday. “But we don’t really want to see [our top players] a whole lot.”

And so long as Gruden is being coy, the ever-present possibility of the Raiders’ 2018 season being abject disaster will hang over this team.

(Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

No one knows anything right now — this is all conjecture and educated guessing — but when I talk about the Raiders with people whose league-wide NFL opinions I respect, far more see a five-win season than a five-loss, division-winning campaign.

Gruden’s “death to the preseason” tactics, while noble, certainly aren’t going to change anyone’s mind in that regard.

And comments about the number of castoffs that have been assembled in Oakland for what might be a swan-song season in the East Bay aren’t helping either.

Every team — even Cleveland — feels good about themselves in the preseason, but the Raiders’ outspoken confidence in this roster — one of the oldest in the NFL — and this coaching staff — led by a guy who, again, hasn’t coached an NFL team since Paul Blart: Mall Cop was the No. 1 movie in America — is self-incrimination waiting to happen.

“It blows my mind,” Carr said. “You see some of these guys that were on other teams that are not anymore. You’re like, ‘Man, how does that happen?’ We’re very fortunate and very blessed to have them.”

Of course, some of those re-tread players the Raiders have in key roles are rock-solid — neither Kelechi Osemele or Rodney Hudson was drafted by Oakland — but it shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone why Gruden was able to sign players like Martin or linebacker Derrick Johnson.

As such, this summer, Pro Football Focus ranked the Raiders’ roster among the least talented in the NFL.

What have we seen this August to disprove that thesis?

Nothing yet.

(Photo by Robert Reiners/Getty Images) Getty Images

Meanwhile, the Mack holdout doesn’t help anything. Yes, the Raiders’ defense has looked solid in the preseason, both in practices and games — Guenther is an excellent defensive coordinator and the Raiders might have found steals in the draft along the d-line in PJ Hall and Arden Key — but without the team’s best player, this defense is nowhere near optimized. Even if the Raiders can be competent without Mack in 2018, the defensive end not being in camp overshadows everything the Raiders are doing and particularly casts a pall on Gruden, who is, by virtue of *his* massive contract, the man in charge of everything in Alameda.

We can debate this 1,000 different ways, but ultimately, it’s hard to take anyone seriously as a strong decision maker when they’re yet to extend a fair-market deal to one of NFL’s best players at a position of paramount importance, all while also refusing to listen to trade offers for the player.

It’s a mess.

Now, the Mack situation might develop clarity in the final weeks of the preseason, but don’t expect Gruden to offer clarity in other departments.

While we can see every other team in the NFL forming an identity this preseason, the Raiders are keeping everything behind closed doors. Is it all for show or for a competitive advantage? I suppose that’ll be determined by the team’s success.

What I can say is this: after months of waiting to see how this grand, expensive experiment would work, it seems as if we’ll have to wait a few more weeks to truly find out.